Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover offered probation

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, whose suspected illegal activity led Louisville police to raid Ms Taylor’s home, pleaded guilty last week to several drug charges in exchange for probation.

The plea deal would allow Jamarcus Glover, 31, to avoid what court records suggested could have been eight years in prison. Prosecutors in Jefferson County, Kentucky, dropped most of the charges against Mr Glover, and a judge is scheduled to sentence him on his remaining illegal cocaine possession and trafficking charges in late November.

The agreement, first reported by Louisville TV station WDRB, a Fox affiliate, says the state “has no objection” to Mr Glover serving his probation in Mississippi, where he previously lived. Glover will also be required to forfeit money and cars seized by police in his cases.

Police arrived at Ms Taylor’s apartment 13 March 2020, on suspicion that she was connected to Mr Glover’s alleged drug activity. Their fatal shooting of Ms Taylor during the early-morning raid contributed to that summer’s national uprising that forced a widespread reexamination of race in the United States and sparked a federal investigation into the practices of Louisville police.

Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Ms Taylor’s family, said the plea deal underscored his repeated assertions that police acted disproportionately when they raided Ms Taylor’s apartment in search of Mr Glover. The police investigation focused on several vacant properties and also targeted a man named Adrian Walker.

“It’s a tragic reminder of how a ridiculous, militarised operation was the catalyst for a 26-year-old’s woman’s murder,” Mr Aguiar said in a statement. “They were treating these guys like they were each Pablo Escobar, when in reality they were low-level offenders.”

Paul Mullins, an attorney for Mr Glover, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

On his application for a warrant to raid Ms Taylor’s home, a police detective wrote that he had seen Mr Glover leave Ms Taylor’s apartment with a package in January 2020. He also said he had “verified through a US Postal Inspector” that Mr Glover was receiving packages related to drug activity at Ms Taylor’s apartment.

But an internal police investigation found the latter statement to be false, and then-interim police chief Yvette Gentry moved to fire the detective, Joshua Jaynes. He is appealing his termination in court.

Mr Glover was arrested the same day that Ms Taylor was killed. Now out on bail, he has refused to implicate Taylor in drug dealings and last summer rejected a plea deal that would have forced him to attest that she was involved in an “organised crime syndicate”.

Officers knocked on Ms Taylor’s door several times the night of the raid, but police, neighbours and Ms Taylor’s current boyfriend disagree on whether they also announced themselves as police. When the officers broke down the door with a battering ram, Ms Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker – who is not related to Adrian Walker – let off one round in what he later characterised as a warning shot toward possible intruders.

Three officers fired back, and six shots struck Ms Taylor.

None of officers who fired their guns in the raid remain on the police force. The department terminated Officer Brett Hankison and Detective Myles Cosgrove, whom the FBI found fired the fatal shot. Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the thigh, retired in June.

No one was directly charged in Ms Taylor’s death. Mr Hankison is accused of wanton endangerment for firing bullets that entered a neighboring apartment. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Washington Post